boy-in-white-polo-shirt-sitting-iPad

Netflix offers new parental control tools         

With all of us spending more time at home, it’s entirely likely your kids may be watching more TV than they typically do. If you’re busy working—and heck, even if you’re not—the challenge can be making sure your kiddos aren’t watching things you’d prefer they didn’t.

We’ve offered links and instructions to controls for your kids’ favorite streaming and gaming services before, but Netflix just rolled out new and improved options. While previously, their controls were a bit ham-fisted, now you have much more granular setting choices.

Now you can:

  • Find out what your kids are watching
  • Block specific shows
  • Set a profile that can limit what they can view by maturity ratings
  • Turn off autoplay for episode and previews

Perhaps just as helpful, any shows or movies that are blocked will NOT show in your kid’s profile—which means you can hopefully avoid some “why can’t I watch this show?” battles.

Get started

Head to your Netflix account on your web browser to get started (why? Because you can’t adjust all functions via the app—including autoplay). Choose “Account” and then you can select your child’s profile. Opt to “Change” their “Viewing Restrictions” and start making your selections. To see what your child is viewing, choose “Viewing Activity.”

Tip: be sure to set restrictions on the other profiles too—including your own (after all, if won’t do you any good to set them for your kids if they can just choose your profile to get around them). You can lock your profile by selecting “Profile Lock” when you’re looking at your account settings.

About Missy Kellor

Missy works on the Corporate Communications team and reports stories to TDS employees and customers. This is right up her alley because she’s an extrovert and also a big fan of research (really, she’ll look up just about anything that strikes her interest). Missy is a native of Madison, Wis. with an undergraduate in Anthropology and a master’s degree in Life Sciences Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her interest in the Internet as a mass media shaped her work towards a PhD in Journalism and Mass Communications. She’s also worked as an editorial assistant, copywriter, and production artist. In her off hours, Missy is a crafter, Pinterest addict, reader, wife, and mom of two kids.
No comments yet.

Leave a Comment